8 of the NPP presidential aspirants want a centralized special college election - Boakye Agyarko

Former energy minister, and a flagbearer hopeful of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Boakye Agyarko, has disclosed that at least eight of the NPP presidential aspirants prefer a centralized special college election as against a decentralized election where delegates vote in their respective regions.

According to him, the push for a centralised special college of elections is due to several reasons, of which integrity of the ballot is not an exception.

“Well the first time we did this was in 2014, we voted at the regional level. The argument then were that we were in opposition and that we didn’t have money to organize a centralized election……so we voted at the regional level. Now we are arguing that all the 891 or so delegates must come to a central point,” he said.

He made this disclosure in an interview with Bernard Avle on his Point of View show on Citi TV, which was monitored by GhanaWeb.

When quizzed by the host whether his comments were supported by the other flagbearer hopefuls, he answered:

“At least I know eight presidential hopefuls who we have had this discussion and we will pursue it.

"There are many reasons, reasons of integrity of the ballot. I mean, in Upper East, there are 38 delegates, Western North, there are 28 delegates. So are we going to convene a process for 38 people?

"When we elected our national officers, over 6,000 people voted and we brought all of them to Accra sports stadium.”

The former campaign manager and policy advisor, Boakye Agyarko, was the first to pick up the New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential nomination forms for the party's primaries.

He was vetted by the New Patriotic Party's Vetting Committee on Tuesday, July 4, 2023, at the party regional office.

The NPP special college elections is scheduled for the 26th day of August.